It was in early 2002 that the idea of an Arab peace initiative was born. After the failure of the Camp David negotiations, the end of the Clinton presidency and the election of Ariel Sharon, the intifada was raging, turning into a violent confrontation. Israeli settlement policy, Hamas' suicide bombings and Israeli bloody attacks, incursions and siege threatened to destroy the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Early efforts to save the day, including the Sharm al-Sheikh summits and the Mitchell report, did not bring any relief.

We come in peaceATFP World Press Roundup Article
from Bitterlemons
by
Amr Hamzawy
-
(Opinion)
November 10, 2010 - 1:00am

The turmoil in the Middle East must be brought to an end. A serious path leading to a strategic deal has to take place. In this, we should not follow delusions, yet we should seek a just settlement for all. We seek real solutions that address the core problems of our region. There will be no peace in the region unless we tackle its problems with an honest, futuristic and comprehensive approach.

It was chilling in Jerusalem in January 2002, and not only because of the weather. The sandbags, the metal detectors, the security guards with their visible guns at entrances to restaurants, malls, hospitals; almost a guard for every door. This was a country seized by a deep sense of threat and disillusionment. In the West Bank, a second winter of heavy repression closed and terrorized villages and towns. Those who had to leave their homes for work, an errand or a family visit, couldn't know when, if, they would come back. This was a whole nation denied hope, and grounded.

Obama can still do itATFP World Press Roundup Article
from The Jordan Times
by
George S. Hishmeh
-
(Opinion)
November 12, 2010 - 1:00am

Though obnoxious, Benjamin Netanyahu is no dummy.?After all, the Israeli prime minister knows that since he got away with something the first time, he might as well take another shot at it the second time. His victim on both occasions was Joe Biden, the ever-smiling American vice president.

Six years after he died in a Paris hospital, leaving behind a failed peace process and a Palestinian government plagued by inefficiency and corruption, Yasser Arafat remains the object of veneration by Palestinians, even as they are divided between nationalist and Islamic factions.
Construction on a museum dedicated to his life and containing many of his personal effects – including the black-and-white keffiyeh he turned into a symbol of Palestinian nationhood – has begun in the Muqata compound in Ramallah, where Arafat spent his last years besieged by Israeli troops.

WASHINGTON - The likely next head of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee said she is against handing out $150 million in direct aid to help the Palestinian Authority close its budget deficit.
On Wednesday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the new assistance to the Palestinian Authority and called for other donor countries to step up aid.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, Secretary of State Clinton meet for more than seven hours. PM says he's still serious about reaching peace deal with Palestinians; reports about planned east Jerusalem construction surface during meeting

"I heard (Foreign Minister Avigdor) Lieberman say that whoever thinks peace with Syria can be achieved is a political hypochondriac. If we're already talking in psychiatric terms, I think a government that says this one day and then talks of peace with Syria and the Palestinians the next day – this is a government of political schizophrenia," Opposition Chairperson Tzipi Livni said Friday.
During a meeting with residents of the Menashe Regional Council, the leader of the Kadima party said the government "is not being truthful with the public or with itself."

Thousands of Palestinians filled the plaza in front of Ramallah's Muqata government complex to mark six years since Yasser Arafat's death yesterday.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hailed efforts at reconciliation between his Fatah faction and its traditional rival Hamas, then in the next breath rallied the crowd against Israeli settlement building in the West Bank.